JOHANNESBURG - Next year's minimum wage increase is expected to raise the minimum wage rate to above R30 an hour.
This moment highlights both progress and the ongoing problems domestic workers face.
Many domestic workers are still paid below the minimum wage required by labour law.
The hike follows recommendations from the National Minimum Wage Commission linking the rise to inflation forecasts.
Pinky Mashiane, founder and president of United Domestic Workers of SA, said, "In 1994, when South Africa came to democracy, many domestic workers thought things would be better for them."
Mashiane said domestic workers are isolated and vulnerable with many workers not registered with the UIF, underpaid and legally unprotected.
"There are very few domestic workers who are unionised and that means they are unprotected," she said.
Mashiane went on to say the national minimum wage is insufficient but that is only a part of the issue.
"Many, many domestic workers are still underpaid," she said.
"There are domestic workers working from Monday to Sunday, there is no off [days], there is no holidays; they work more than the national regulated hours and they don't get paid for the extra [time]," Mashiane stated.
A study by Annabel Fenton from the London School of Economics and Political Science found discrimination in the working and living conditions of domestic workers in some of Johannesburg's most affluent suburbs.